Review: High-voltage jazz powers TJW season-closing concert

In a season of not-to-be forgotten performances, the high voltage Graham Dechter Quartet lit up the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th, with a luminescence surely observable from galaxies far, far away.

Dechter, the 26-year-old guitar phenom who has been lighting up the jazz scene since joining the L.A.-based Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at age 19, is the real deal, a young artist who has found his voice by alloying the best of bedrock blues, bebop and swing.

Like a number of gifted performers, whether in sports or music, there is a robust athleticism in Dechter’s playing. Ripping blistering lines from the perennial jam session tune “Squatty-Roo,” Dechter left us breathless — spellbound!

Yet even in heart-breaking ballads, such as “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” the electricity — and lyricism — crackled and flowed. Such melodic fare also revealed a maturity, a sense of phrasing that breathed deep and sometimes sighed. This helped give Dechter’s Sunday afternoon concert refreshing changes-of-pace.

Dechter’s guitar, though, was but one of four strong voices. Adding their own impressive accents to such conversations as the tropically-tinged dialogue flowing around the exuberant Antonio Carlos Jobim samba “No More Blues” were pianist Josh Nelson, bassist Christophe Luty and drummer Jeff Hamilton, a trio of jazz-savvy Angelinos who’ve become Topeka Jazz Workshop favorites.

Indeed, the individual and collective oomph of Dechter’s foursome hit like a big band tsunami. Shuffling the deck of dynamics, the music shouted, and whispered, and, then again, roared. This made bluesy sojourns, such as Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song,” a jazzy highway of diverting road-side attractions.

Dechter, whose dad is one of Hollywood’s top arrangers, is himself a master of musical choreography. Sounds-of-surprise abounded as musical bombs burst in air — often in the most unexpected of places. There were also lines doubled and tripled with me-and-my shadow perfection.

Although he would downplay the suggestion, drummer Jeff Hamilton deserves more than a nod. His galloping Tinseltown big band (co-led by bassist John Clayton) and also his trios have served for decades as incubators for several generations of top-tier jazz pros. Now, it’s Dechter’s (and also Nelson’s and Luty’s) place in the Hamiltonian sun!

I can’t say enough about Dechter’s Quartet except to paraphrase a bit of schoolboy Latin from Caesar’s “Gallic Wars”: They came, they played, they conquered! The elated crowd signaled its agreement with hearty rounds of applause and a standing ovation!

(Due to a bit of sequester-lag, Dechter, Luty and Hamilton were delayed by “air-system anomalies.” That, though, provided a terrific opportunity for pianist Josh Nelson, who had arrived on an earlier flight, to team with Kansas Citians Bob Bowman, bass, and Tommy Ruskin, drums, for indelible etchings of “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “You’ve Changed,” and the wonderfully quirky “Monk’s Dream.”)